Have you ever changed careers?

[dulcemariamar]

Have you ever changed careers? Or have you basically been working in the same field your whole life?

If you did change, why?

[oneslybookworm]

I would say that I've been in the same career/job for my adult life (out of school). I'm certified to practice law in Indiana, but I work as an account manager for a diesel engine company. I've been working for the same company since my last year of law school, and I graduated in 2009. So...same career.

[aMrsin09]

I was in the same career (account Manager for Marketing Agencies) for 20+ years. I changed careers when we moved to OZ. Why? That job doesn't exist up where we are.

[irish]

I changed.

I studied business but then got a job in the hospitality industry, which I then studied in and worked in for a number of years. But then I got bored so changed back to accounting, which is what I still do now.

My dh also changed his career and is much happier in what he does now even though there was a lot of cost in getting to where he is now. He did 3 years of study, 1 of which was full time so he had to give up his job and move back home to his parents' house (we weren't living together at the time)

[mrsukyankee]

I started off in marketing/advertising. I ended up hating it. So at 25, I went and got my master's degree and am now doing my current job in schools.

[anna7602]

Yes, often. And I am considering it again, taking this year in France to contemplate what I'll do when I get back to the U.S.

My first "career" was in marketing financial products in emerging markets (target groups in the U.S. and internationally). I did this for about 5 years mainly because of the first job I got out of college. Things went well, I progressed, I got to travel and live abroad and the pay was great, allowing me to pay off my student loans. It wasn't my passion, though. I studied international relations & Latin American literature in college and really wanted to do something less businessy. So, once I had paid off my student loans and saved enough to manage for a while without a job while I looked for a new one, I quit marketing, got married and moved to NYC all within a 2-month period. I moved to NYC in August and started a job doing advocacy work for an international literary org the following January.

I worked in that job for almost 5 years before I got pregnant and knew I needed more schedule flexibility. My boss at the time tried to get me to stay by offering a part-time schedule, but the reality was that I had the same job responsibilities to cram into less hours. I started doing more freelance translating while still pregnant and tried to build up my portfolio/contacts/etc. so I could just work for myself post-baby.

The timing was a little off and I ended up working at the non-profit part-time AND doing freelance for about a year after DD was born. It was the suckiest, hardest year of my life (and of my marriage)-- lots and lots of work, no sleep, a small baby to care for who was pretty colicky-- I was really miserable and irritable most of the time. But, I finished the year with three published book translations and a sense that I had fulfilled my obligations at the non-profit job. So I quit and officially became a literary translator "full time." (My workload varies a lot since I freelance.)

The work is interesting and sometimes I even get paid just to read a novel and decide if I would want to translate it or not. I don't really like working for myself, though. It's nice to have the flexibility to shut down my computer and go pick up DD at school, but I still have to come back and finish it at some point. After almost 4 years, I still haven't gotten into a groove where the work flow is consistent. It's feast or famine. I'm either so busy I want to cry or I'm panicking that nothing else will come along. And it gets really lonely just sitting here at home by myself.

I think that once DD is in a longer school day, or kid 2 is at that point if we have more kids, I am going to try to look for more work outside the home. Maybe teaching or something that would still allow me a schedule that would be compatible with DD's. I don't think I could go back to doing international advocacy work without a major childcare plan in place, especially for the travel piece. DH seems to think it's just a matter of us landing in the right country for me to go back to career 2 instead of making the jump to career 4.

[travelingturtle]

I worked at a travel agency for a while, first advising people then as a manager. I loved the job and company, but needed a change.

So, I worked for a graduate business school. Hated that job and my coworkers, but I loved working with the students.

Quit and worked part-time at an independent theater that sponsored a film festival. It was a non-profit, so I took on various roles throughout my time there. My favorite was being the event planner for the festival. Loved it. One year I planned the travel for visiting filmmakers and celebrities.

My most recent job was planning summer study abroad programs for a university. That was the best combination of my previous jobs and things I enjoy doing. I like working with students, planning travel programs that have a more educational slant to it (as opposed to my time at the travel agency planning spring break or advising on vacations to Europe - those are fun, don't get me wrong, but it gets boring). I even got to do a slight bit of event planning. Not as fun as planning parties and such, but still fun. So, I consider that my career was mostly consistent with the time at the business school solidifying the fact that I like to work with students and the time at the indie theater/film festival being the only real different thing. I imagine that when I go back to the workforce it'll have to be something travel and student related.

[RITS]

Kind of. My degree was in graphic design and I had an awesome internship my senior year. However, when I graduated, the field was really competitive and I couldn't find a job so I became a flight attendant with the intentions to freelance on the side. I ended up not doing a lot of freelance work but I'm kind of getting back into it now that I quit flying to move over here.

[dulcemariamar]

Wow! Travelingturtle. You have had a lot of fun jobs.

[centralperk]

Not really. But after I graduated from college, I worked for 2 years, and then decided to go back to school. No regrets. I was lucky enough to feel like I found my calling in life (sounds cheesy but it's true). And if you're lucky enough to find that, you have to go for it.

[Wanderista]

Well, I was working in an international trade law division as a legal assistant in DC for about 2 yrs which was a fascinating subject but I hated the office culture among other things. So, I decided not to go to law school. My degrees (BA/Master's) are in international relations with an emphasis on Europe. I've got a passion for politics, economics, geopolitics, etc, but I struggle with finding work that is mentally stimulating, economically renumerative and provides a decent work-life balance especially in the lovely current global economic environment.

I've been at my current job at a political non-profit also here in Washington for 3 yrs. I enjoy it, the office culture is great (lots of working from home and everyone is nice), the work is politically useful as well. Ultimately in the next few years, I will be looking to move into something else, likely corresponding with a move abroad. I'm not really sure what that will be, it will depend entirely on what kind of opportunity arises. I'd love to find comparable work in London or Brussels. Brussels would probably be a better fit but I won't complain about any good option. Otherwise, I have recently been considering the possibility of shifting careers into something like English teaching abroad. I've known a fair number of people who've done it. Again, what will happen in the next year or two is still a bit up in the air.

Also, let me just say that PPs' career trajectories = awesome.

[lolo]

I was on a path to go to law school and had two law-related summer internships while in undergrad, one as aide to counsel with law clerk responsibilities and one as a courthouse researcher. But my senior year of college, the day I took the LSAT, I had a kind of epiphany that I wasn't 100% sure that was what I wanted, and I wasn't sure I wanted to go straight to law school.

I ended up pursuing publishing then, working as an editorial assistant and then in sales. The EA job was heinous and terrible, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the sales job. It wasn't just transactional sales, but more complex sales. It required a lot of strategy, critical thinking, and good listening skills, all of which I enjoyed. Because of the particular publisher I worked for, I was based in educational institutions, which meant I felt the solutions I was pitching really made a difference. I helped some universities who were about to lose accreditation implement some solutions that improved student performance, and had numerous professors tell me I had made a huge difference.

But somewhere in the back of my mind, I didn't feel 'done' with school. So I accepted an offer to get my master's degree, which is how we moved abroad. I thought it would be the most amazing year of my life, and....well, it just wasn't. There were some great things about it and I got to work with people at the absolute top of their fields, including with someone whose research I'd admired from afar for many years. But I was surprised that it didn't fulfill me. I really missed the publishing job, and found myself enjoying an editor job at a student journal more than my studies.

So I went back into publishing after graduating, this time as an acquisitions editor (commissioning). I absolutely love it. It's fantastic to try to see what students and educators struggle with and to work with authors and co-workers to create products that help people learn or be better teachers. It sounds cheesy, but I really believe that education makes a difference in peoples' lives, and it's therefore really meaningful for me to contribute to that.

That doesn't mean I never look around, but it would take something really similar in terms of skill set required, level of challenge, amount of variety and autonomy I enjoy in my day-to-day job, and also an end-payoff other than purely profit that I could believe in and feel good about at the end of the day.

[clickerish]

I did, and I would do it again. I have changed a total of 3 times thus far. My BA was in Business, but my first job out of college was working for someone on the Hill. It happened completely randomly since it wasn't technically in my field of studies, but I figured why not. I enjoyed a lot of aspects of it, but being linked forever to elected officials (and thus, elections) wasn't something I was enthused about. So, I decided to do something radically different and signed up for grad school. When I finish, I will either do what I am "supposed" to do and become a professor or I will completely change again and go either into international government or work for an NGO abroad. We'll see what happens. I think I am the type of person who can be happy in a variety of fields. What matters more to me is location, whether I feel competent to do the job, and if I feel like what I am doing matters in the broader scheme of things--so I try to keep my options open and flexible.

[blushing]

I worked for a bank as a bank teller, then I left to study to be a teacher, then I became a PA, then I worked an office manager/book keeper, then I worked for a country club as a Events co-ordinations assistant, then I worked as a household claims consultant for an insurance company and now I work for a risk assessment company as a research analyst. What am I going to do next? Who knows. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

I have also had odd jobs like working as a hawkers assistant, working in a 7eleven and working as a waitress, oh and as a promo girl, but those were filler in jobs. I have never struggled to get a job, ever! Usually once I have been for the interview the job is mine, not sure why, but I guess I am likeable. I have also been headhunted twice, first by chartered accountants who wanted to pay me to study and then work for them at the same time, I was not interested and once by a guy who owned a small art gallery, he wanted to run the place when he was not there, again I turned it down, art is not my thing.

[travelingturtle]

Dulce, I must've made the jobs sound more fun than they were. Ha ha. It sucks planning travel programs for other people while sitting behind a desk! Or planning events that I then have to be stressed about while everyone else gets to enjoy it.